Caleb handed Skaggs his hat and dropped into the open seat. “Hope you gents don’t mind if I join you for breakfast. Don’t know exactly what you’ve been jawin’ about, but if it has anything to do with my town, or Mrs. Savage, I want to know.”
Glanced at Skaggs for his approval, but would have said what I did without it. He nodded, and I went through his entire tale for the marshal’s benefit. While I talked, the hungry gunfighter shoveled food in his face like a man filling up a grave. Went at the victuals with a speed and ferocity that reminded me of a hungry wolf out to devour a recent kill as quickly as possible so no other animal could get at it.
Oakley appeared not the least bit surprised by what he heard. When we finished, he laid his fork aside and said, “You gonna tell Mrs. Savage about this, or do you want me to do the job?”
No need for me to give that one much thought. “Lady offered to cook me a fine meal, Caleb. Guess I’ll collect on her kind proposal this afternoon. See what we might be able to decide on in the way of preparation for Nate Coffin’s revenge.”
Oakley shot Skaggs a suspicious glance, then quickly turned back to me. “Be assured of my willingness to help in any way I can, Lucius. Skunks like this ’un don’t scare me in the least.”
Skaggs evidently chose to ignore Oakley’s public chastisement. Sopped a biscuit through the leavings on his plate, cocked his head to one side, smiled like an idiot dog, and crammed the entire wad of bread into his mouth.
“Any way possible, Marshal, I’ll get her out of town and back to Fort Worth,” I said. “Surely Coffin isn’t stupid enough to come right into Company B’s headquarters after her.”
With buttermilk, egg yolk, and a crop of crumbs decorating his thick, drooping moustache, Skaggs gazed off at the farmers, ranchers, and tradesmen passing in the street. He shook his shaggy head and said, “Don’t bet your life on it, Dodge. Nate Coffin is nefarious and unbelievably powerful. He’ll send others, in the beginning. Feel you out. See if underlings can take care of the problem. If that don’t work, trust me, he’ll come hisself, kill every breathin’ thing in this one-horse town, burn it to the ground, and scatter the ashes to the four winds. He’s just that crazy—and a good bit more.”
Bold statement really got Caleb’s hackles up. Thought he’d jump across the table and slap the crumbs out of Skaggs’s moustache when he snapped, “Such an eventuality could prove a great deal more difficult than you, or Coffin, believe, as long as I’m around and kickin’, you mouthy son of a bitch.”
Well, that ripped the rag off the bush. Second-rate assassin shook a finger in the marshal’s face and growled, “Killin’ an old fart like you ain’t no chore for a big doer like me, Oakley. Best watch your words, old man.”
Oakley’s face went white. Figured I’d best jump in and stop the disagreement before the whole dance went too far. Held up a peacemaking hand between them, but kept my hidden weapon trained on the object of the marshal’s ire.
Said, “Calm down, gents. Caleb, I’m sure our breakfast guest has no intention of staying on in Salt Valley any longer than necessary. Do you, Skaggs?”
He looked surprised at my assessment for about two seconds and shot back, “I’d like to get a bath and sleep in a bed, a night or two, before moving on.”
“Why don’t you do that,” I suggested. “And as a gesture of my sincere appreciation for the information you’ve brought, let your short stay be my treat. Just tell the hotel desk clerk to put your room and bath on my bill.”
My proposition had the desired effect. His attention moved from Caleb back to me. “Right nice of you to offer, Ranger Dodge, but I can take care of my own living expenses.”
Nodded, waved, and said, “Whatever you want.”
Angry gun hound shoved his chair away from the table and stood. “Well, what I say is, keep an eye peeled for other men like me. Heavily armed and with a dead-eyed look unlike any of the hoople-heads around these parts. Sure as chiggers itch, murderers are on their way as we speak. And be totally assured, they’re comin’ to kill you, and especially the woman, Dodge.”
He eased around the table as though certain we meant to shoot him in the back. Disappeared into the hotel’s lobby. Through the door, I heard him order up a room and steamin’-hot bath.
Caleb snatched his hat off and placed it in his lap. “Don’t know about you, Dodge, but I believe ’im. Hard to admit such, but I do.”
“Yeah, ugly tale definitely has the ring of truth. I’ll get out to Mrs. Savage’s place this afternoon. We’ll work a plan and go from there.”
Finished my breakfast. Strolled down the boardwalk and caught a freckle-faced kid in front of Broome’s Mercantile and Dry Goods Store. Said, “You know where Mrs. Savage lives, son?”
“Yessir. Out on the north edge of town. End of Main Street. Past the sawmill.”
“That’s right. Give you four bits if you’ll take this to her and wait for an answer.”
On the back of Dianna Savage’s calling card I wrote a short message inquiring if that evening would be convenient for her offer of a meal. Folded the tiny piece of paper, handed it to the kid, and said, “Wait for her reply. You can find me over yonder on the hotel veranda, or maybe at the jail. Understand?”
“Where’s my four bits?” he asked.
“Get it when you come back with my reply.”
“Aw, come on, Ranger. You gotta cough up at least two bits, or I ain’t doin’ nothin’.”
Must admit I admired the barefooted rascal’s nerve. Paid him his two bits and he hit the road running. Thirty minutes later he found me back in my chair in the shade.
Snatched his hat off and held it against his chest with both hands. Said, “The lady wants me to say as how this afternoon around five o’clock would be mighty fine, if that’s to your satisfaction. Said she would look forward to your visit, Ranger.”
“That’s just capital. Here’s the rest of your money, young feller. Go back and tell her I’ll be there.”
He toed the dirt and shook his head. “Now I contracted to deliver your message fer four bits. You want another’n done, it’ll cost you another four bits.”
“Your daddy a lawyer by any chance?” I asked.
Kid looked surprised and said, “How’d you know.”
“Just a wild guess.”
We haggled a bit more over what I proclaimed as his exorbitant fee. By that point the whole experience had turned into a good bit of fun. I finally relented and we agreed on another four bits for delivery of my reply.
He gave me back most of the coins I’d initially paid with. Said he wanted paper money. Watched him hotfoot it down the dirt road and thanked my lucky stars I probably wouldn’t have to do business with the overly smart little shit as an adult.
4
“. . . THEY MEAN TO KILL THE BOTH OF US.”
RATHER THAN PULL Grizz out of the livery for such a short ride, decided I’d walk to the Savage residence. Pleasant stroll cleared my head and lifted sagging spirits. Ever since the dustup in Salt Valley’s main thoroughfare, I’d been thinking as how there’s just nothing like getting shot in the head to get your undivided attention. Such God-sent events do have the power to set a man to puzzling over his own mortality.
By the time I arrived in front of Mrs. Savage’s neatly kept, whitewashed cottage, I felt better than I had in more than a week.
Pushed open the gate on the freshly painted picket fence, crossed the only patch of lush, green grass I’d seen around any of the town’s residences, removed my hat, and tapped on the front door. Barely had time to take note of the carefully tended beds of multicolored wildflowers that encircled the entire home.
Dianna Savage answered my knock immediately. Her appearance gave me the distinct impression that the lady had anticipated the visit and spied my approach through one of her curtained front windows.
My God, but the woman’s beauty was dazzling for a rough-and-tumble lawdog like me. Stood in the splendid lady’s doorway and got right flustered. Stared at my dusty boots and, for several seconds, searched for, but couldn’t find, the proper words.
Looking back on that singular event from the vast reaches of time, I know now Dianna had most likely spent the entire afternoon molding herself into an image designed to specifically bring poor defenseless men, like me, to their physical and emotional knees. Suffice it to say, her efforts had exactly the expected effect on one highly impressed, and grateful, Texas Ranger.
Regal, in a dove-gray high-necked dress that probably cost as much as my saddle and emphasized her tiny waist, the lady’s simple, unvarnished beauty sucked the breath right out of me. Caught myself staring like a loon at her provocative lips, and almost stumbled backward when a passing breeze tickled my nose with a brand of perfume that made the hair on the back of my neck stand up.
On my third stumbling attempt to speak, she brought a silk kerchief out, dabbed at those inviting lips, then said, “Would you care to come inside, Mr. Dodge?”
Must have looked like a big-eyed colt, and sounded like a half-brained man lookin’ to find a corner in a round room when I managed to blurt out, “Why, yes. Indeed I would, Mrs. Savage.”
She motioned me into a small, wallpapered parlor located to the left of the front entrance. Decorated with expensive store-bought furniture and heavy wine-colored drapes, the comfortable, homey room was dominated by a rustic stone fireplace that almost covered one whole wall.
She motioned me toward a chair and said, “Please take the brocaded one, Mr. Dodge. It is, by far, the most comfortable seat in the house. Prior to his untimely departure, my husband favored that chair. Loved to bounce William on his knee while sitting in it.”
Astonishing woman gracefully slid onto a settee near a delicate-legged end table loaded down with coffee, cups, and cakes. In pretty short order I sported an uncomfortable lap covered by an embroidered cloth napkin, a china cup smaller than a thimble, and at least one of everything she had to offer. Spent the rest of my time in that parlor deathly afraid I’d break something before I could make my escape.
For some minutes we exchanged meaningless pleasantries; then, I noticed that her son was not in evidence. Indirectly approached the subject and said, “And how is young William, Mrs. Savage?”
She shook her head and dabbed at the corner of one eye with her lace hankie. “Well, Mr. Dodge, as well as can be expected, I suppose. William sleeps inordinately of late and is napping at this very moment. I fear the child still evidences a degree of lingering nervousness and apprehension as a result of our recently shared experience.”
“My memory of him is of a handsome, bright, and bold youngster. Is there anything I might do to help, Mrs. Savage?”
“Most five-year-old boys eventually recover from just about any trauma, sir. I feel certain my son is no exception.” She paused and dropped her gaze, for a second, before continuing. “You know, I thought I had chosen a town so far removed from the vagaries of Texas lawlessness and violence that my son would be completely safe. I fear my judgment may well have failed me in this instance.”
She had subtly offered me an entrance into a more personal area of her life with such comments, so I opened the door a bit wider. “Marshal Oakley tells me you came to Salt Valley after your husband died in a tragic fall.”
For the first time she offered a slight smile. “The local gossips appear to have been at work again. I fear they often labor much too hard at spreading groundless tales as the truth. No, Mr. Dodge, my husband did not die in a fall. He was murdered by business associates in Shelbyville—a town located in that area of Texas sometimes referred to as the Redlands.”
Shook my head in disbelief. “That news is most distressing to hear. Please accept my sympathies for an unacceptable loss.”
“Evil men sought to lay their bloody hands on a small fortune he’d acquired through land speculation. But shortly before his death that thoughtful man converted his vast holdings into cash, placed the money in a secret bank account, and informed me how to acquire the funds should anything wayward occur.” She fingered a miniature timepiece held to her bodice by a slip of lace. “Looking back on the event, I am almost certain he had a premonition of his brutal passing. Today I am a wealthy woman as a result of his foresight, Mr. Dodge. Perhaps the wealthiest woman in this part of the state.”
“And one helluva a shot, I might add.” Realized my social blunder immediately. “Forgive my lapse into questionable language, ma’am. I fear my crudity results from rough-and-ready company most of the time.”
Pleased me no end when she held the handkerchief over her mouth and cut loose with lusty, robust laughter. “Ah, yes. Well, sir, even my father’s extensive investments in Mrs. Cranston’s New Orleans Finishing School for Accomplished Young Women did little to erase a rambunctious childhood on the Texas frontier. I was raised in the company of six astonishingly profane brothers. Your ‘lapse,’ as you call it, is of no consequence.”
With that candid confession, she stood and waved me into her dining room and, perhaps, the best home-cooked meal I’d consumed since leaving the shelter of my mother’s tender care. When the coffee finally came, and she’d settled back into her chair, I deemed it the best time to broach the topic that actually brought me to her that evening.
Sat my delicate cup in its matching saucer and said, “Mrs. Savage, I fear we are compelled to discuss a most serious subject before I take my leave from you tonight. I must bring to your attention a matter that could bear heavily upon you and your son’s well-being.”
Could detect no surprise in her voice, or appearance, at my ominous-sounding declaration. “While I had hoped this visit would remain purely social, and admit to looking forward to seeing you again, sir, I feared that such was the case. I take it you have some news relating to the recent death of the thief Reuben Coffin—by my hand.”
Put the cup and saucer aside and leaned toward her in as intimate a gesture as proper deportment would allow. “Marshal Oakley and I have developed what we feel is reliable information that leads us to believe a price has been put on our lives and evil men are on their way to Salt Valley to collect. According to the best information I’ve been able to develop, those selfsame men mean to kill the both of us.”